Language & Words
Numbers in Language Quiz
Why English has twelve, Base-20 in French, and Pirahã with no numbers at all.
Why English has twelve, Base-20 in French, and Pirahã with no numbers at all.
The Pirahã language of the Amazon has no exact number words at all — just 'a few' and 'many' — and its speakers can't match quantities above 3. This 50-question quiz explores how different languages count: base-10 English with its oddly-named 'eleven' and 'twelve,' French base-20 relics like 'quatre-vingts,' Danish half-scores, Japanese counter words, Mandarin 'wan,' Celtic vigesimal, Babylonian base-60, Mayan zero, and the Hindu-Arabic numerals that conquered the world.
Each round presents 10 randomized questions from a pool of 50, with four multiple-choice options and instant feedback after every answer. Your final score comes with a performance tier and shareable results.
You'll learn why 'eleven' means 'one left' over ten, how the French borrowed base-20 counting from the Celts, why German still says 'one-and-twenty,' how Japanese uses 500+ counter words for different object shapes, how the Maya and Indians independently invented zero, how Fibonacci brought Hindu-Arabic numerals to Europe in 1202, and what happens to thought when a language has no numbers at all.
Standard French retains base-20 (vigesimal) relics, likely inherited from Celtic Gaulish influences before Roman Latin. That's why 80 is 'quatre-vingts' (four-twenties) and 90 is 'quatre-vingt-dix' (four-twenty-ten). Swiss and Belgian French use the decimal forms 'septante' and 'nonante' instead.
A vigesimal (base-20) system uses 20 as its counting base instead of 10. Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Basque, Georgian, Maya, and Yoruba all use or historically used vigesimal counting — probably because humans have 20 fingers and toes.
No — a handful of small languages, most famously Pirahã in the Amazon, have no exact number words, only vague quantifiers like 'few' and 'many.' Warlpiri in Australia traditionally had only words for 1, 2, 'few,' and 'many.'
Last updated: April 2026